very funny
[www.youtube.com]

lol funny

" but only small HANDS!!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHH LOLOLOLOLLOLOL!!

myy gawwwwshhhhhh.... this was fannnnnnntastttticccc!!!!

made my day indeeddddiyyyy!!

thanksss arrugggsszzz!!

I remember trying to play this piece, the first time I looked at the score, I just said "Oh, brother." Rachmaninov is like that.

In practice I think that most people drop notes, break up the chords, that kind of thing. Because it's impossible to reach all those spans for most people.

Small hands here, too!

Cool vid, I love piano music.

Haha, that was fantastic

Cheers,
J

arugula

how did u play that

stretching the hands more than an octave is pretty difficult\

not to mention painful

i'm thinking that i would need to have some sort of surgery to make my hands streeeeetttchhhh or some infusion of stem cells that would make my fingers looooonggerrrrr

i totally luvvveddd that the pianist and the guy holding all the "accoutrements"

were able to throw and catch with precision ( no dropping on the floor)

and i think it took HIGH skill to be able to throw it over one's head

and not over the other person's head LOL

pretty fUn TASTic!!

I dropped noted and made some of the chords semi-arpeggios.

I've had better luck with some of his other works. One that is not difficult but really gorgeous is the 18th variation from the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

first 3 minutes of this:
[au.youtube.com]

used to listen to this all the time
it used to make me overly emotional ( dunno why.. maybe past life stuff?)
so can't listen to it anymore

though i listened to it here again
anyhow

not sure what the deal is
some music does this

to me
yes it is gorgeous

I don't know. Music is very mysterious, how deeply it can affect us. Certain chord progressions, even simple one-note melodies, can trigger very intense emotions. And yes it can be overload.

I auditioned a few pianos yesterday, a couple of them were major-league intense, giving me the feeling similar to falling in love--butterflies in the stomach, heart skipping a beat, racing pulse. Just knocking on the inside of the very thick rim of a Mason & Hamlin AA and hearing the intensely powerful reverb hit me in the gut, knowing that this is an instrument that will express my deepest feelings. That sort of thing.

Too bad I'm not made of money, I'd have that big expensive baby in my living room.

i don't get emotional when i'm around a piano

just the music

though yeah, pianos different ones have so much personality
especially the ones that have been played over and over again
years and years
by different people

or even the same person

i prefer the ones that have been played on more
more deeper vibrations

and yeah, just 3 notes together
can indeed trigger powerful feelings

ain't that something

<<Too bad I'm not made of money, I'd have that big expensive baby in my living room>>

ha ha!

maybe u can pay for "visitation rights"

or shall i say

"visitation RITES"



some places have a room with a piano
and u can play in the room

i like baldwin piano

a humble little piano

Baldwin is tanking.

[www.trumanndemocrat.com]

Soon there will be only 3 American piano makers:
Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, and Charles Walter, all three of which are super yummy and also super expensive even when very used.

Wonderful, arugula! Thanks for posting! Love Rach's music; am convinced he wrote most of his stuff to torture pianists!

darnitbaldwinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...a ggggggggghhhhhh

steinways are not as deeply resonant as a baldwin
especially new ones which have that feeling that you are playing an electric keyboard

but the steinways that have been "broken into"
lose that sound and feel like you are playing on rubber plastic keys
and then they actually sound pretty good
like you could drop a shiny dime into a well
and it will sing back to you

arugula

don't worry about getting a new expensive piano

i'm sure your heart is set on a baby grand steinway

the thing is though that the more a piano has been played on ( to a certain point)
the better it will sound

get it used
sure ... there are pianos that are like dilapidated homes
and they are falling apart
and some of the keys don't even make any sound but are "silent" from all the glorious abuse

i'm not talking about getting one of those unless you enjoy having a note or two not sounding when you are playing a piece

get one that is like a car that has around 40 thousand miles on it

these sorta pianos sound better than the ones that are brand new

but if it has 340 000 miles on it, u can bank on it having some keys going AWOL on you when u try to press it

With long-term use:

the hammers get funky
the action tanks, all those moving parts need to be replaced
the soundboard loses its convexity (crown) and flattens out, providing less sustain
the strings decay and possibly rust, needing to be replaced
rarely, the lyre needs replacement

None of these are cosmetic issues, they are all about the sound and the way it plays.

The broken-in part takes about 1 year of moderate use. After that, it's all downhill. Good pianos need rebuilding every 50 years plus or minus with a good touchup every few years or so. Mediocre pianos are not worth rebuilding. Sometimes with a really good piano after 25-30 years you need to replace only the strings and the action, but usually the crown goes and then you might as well redo everything. Trouble with rebuilding is it is not as environmentally friendly as it sounds: with a complete rebuild you replace everything but the lyre, the rim, and the legs.

I have my eye on that newly rebuilt Mason and Hamlin, it is built like a tank. The cost will be somewhere between zero and a new Steinway, which is still pretty stratospheric compared to my salary. But hey, you do what you have to do. It will probably mean more sweet potato and less raw greens because food is currently the only place in my budget where I can cut back and put money towards a piano.

I don't respond much to the cheaper Japanese and Chinese ones, there is nothing like a good American or European grand with all the rich harmonics except maybe for Shigeru Kawai, which is built similarly and has similar costs.

back to the main thread " rachmaninov had big hands"

those were pretty cool contraptions that the guy was throwing to the korean guy
so that he could play the notes

i wonder if those come with really great pianos

i mean, hey... what if their heart was set on a shigeru kawai AND playing rachmaninov

it should come WITH the piano
as a

bonus

it would e called "rachmaninov accoutrements"

well, arug

i guess u are going to be eating a LOT of sweet potatoes

parsley is pretty cheap too

my fave food

and is like the baldwin piano

simple, humble, packs a punch!!!!

Well, they do, except that they aren't big sticks with felt-covered prongs, they are electronic now, with solenoids connected to optical sensors and LEDs: pianomation, pianoforce, player disc, CEUS, disklavier, these are all the modern version of player pianos.

Some of them claim to have sensitivity exceeding what the human touch is capable of, but they still haven't managed to make them so sensitive that they sound like a human being playing. I don't like them.

I will probably be eating sweet potatoes for the rest of my life. Unless I win the lotto or something.

arugulopolis:

<<Well, they do, except that they aren't big sticks with felt-covered prongs, they are electronic now, with solenoids connected to optical sensors and LEDs: pianomation, pianoforce, player disc, CEUS, disklavier, these are all the modern version of player pianos>>

i don't consider these REAL pianos
in fact, i don't even consider them at all
call me arrogant
i don't care
but i thumb my nose down at those contraptions
they are NOT pianos
at all

its fine if others like to play those things
but they ought to be called something else

not

P
I
A
N
O

electrically enhanced keyboard is what those are
and they are not the same

just aren't

its the difference between a redolent, fragrant, rich smelling apple grown biodynamically in dark soil

and a fruit grown from Monsanto seed

they may look alike
but they are entirely different

Yes, we now have

P

I

A

N

O

in the house! First piano in my house in 9 years!

I've been playing so much today that my right trapezius muscle feels sprained.

Dealer loaned me a Kawai K3 upright for until his M&H AA is ready.

Joy and rapture!

But I haven't gotten that Rach prelude out yet. Still feeling scared about it. Arugula have small hands. But big pianistic ambitions.